- Millennials struggling with soaring rent prices are sharing their concerns on TikTok.
- Many people are suffering from recent rent hikes and say they have no savings to fall back on.
- Stagnant wages, student debt, and low economic mobility have created a perfect storm for millennials.
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The first generation of Millennials bought a home at a high price, and now they can’t even afford rent.
There are a lot of young professionals on TikTok who say they don’t know what to do because their landlord is raising their rent so much.
“My leasing agency chose violence,” TikTok creator Caitlin Murray said in a recent video.
She said she just received a lease for next year on a 450-square-foot high-rise home in Boston. According to her, she moved into the apartment in 2021, which she paid $2,600 per month.
Now, she said, the landlord wants $3,444.
“I love Boston, but it’s not New York,” she said. “This is insane.”
In another recent video, Ola Hardesty tearfully says that for the first time in her life, she can’t pay her rent.
“I’m not a wealthy person and I don’t have a lot of stuff. All I have are basic household items: a sofa, a bed, a washer and dryer, that’s all.” said. “I don’t have many luxuries, I don’t travel much, and I don’t spend much money.”
She said her rent in Savannah, Ga., went from $1,300 to $1,800. She also struggles with grocery costs and has cut everything down significantly, she said.
“I am constantly exhausted from overwork and low pay,” she said.
“I don’t need much to be happy. I just want to live comfortably.”
Millennials (people between the ages of 28 and 43) have long known that they probably won’t have as much luck as their parents when it comes to buying a good first home.
As a generation, they understood that rising house prices, stagnant wages, and an aging population that continued to own property would make it more difficult to get onto the ladder.
This manifests itself in several ways. Millennials are moving from cities to suburbs, cursed with the idea that they are the “roommate generation,” or forced to move back in with their parents.
Rent is higher than ever, and millions of millennials are spending the majority of their paychecks on housing.
Too damn expensive
But not being able to afford it at all is even more extreme.
Real estate experts say millennials are in the middle of a storm, facing multiple financial crises at once.
Alana Lindsey, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Warburg, told Business Insider that for millennials to truly thrive in this economy, “we’re going to need a significant increase in wages.”
“Millennials are bearing the brunt of this economic downturn because they are statistically the first generation to perform worse overall than their parents in terms of financial health,” she said. Ta.
“They have significant student loans, huge medical bills, credit card debt, and lower wages than previous generations, and they are contending with reduced economic mobility across the United States.”
Omar Reiner, a real estate agent and president of Cash Home Buyers of Florida, told BI that millennials aren’t saving enough, which creates big problems when unexpected expenses arise. Told.
“When rents are increased to help landlords pay higher taxes, or simply to match the market value of the property, they don’t have that cushion,” he says.
“The problem is compounded by the fact that a large proportion of this age group believe they will never be able to buy a home and will spend their entire lives renting.”
Rashi Malhotra, also an agent at Coldwell Banker Warburg, said the pandemic has also been a factor, with subsequent rent increases putting a greater financial burden on millennial renters.
“Although the U.S. unemployment rate has declined, millennials continue to struggle with low wages due to the long-term effects of the 2008 financial crisis, impacting financial stability,” he said.
But the answer doesn’t lie in blaming other generations, says author and real estate coach Lee Davenport.
She told BI that every generation struggles to obtain safe housing.
Millennials have one advantage, she said. That means social media allows us to spread our stories more easily.
“Ultimately, we don’t need to listen to voices like Whoopi telling us, “You’re not the first person to struggle with housing, so everyone should be quiet.”” she said, referring to Whoopi Goldberg’s comments. .
“Instead, look for the voices of history that say, ‘You’re not the first to have housing problems, so we should all organize. This is what we did.'”